I heard Hammaad bin Zayd (b. 98H, d. 179H) (saying): I heard Ayyub as-Sakhtiyaani (d. 131H), the Mu'tazilah were mentioned, so he said: "The central axis of the Mu'tazilah is that they want to say there is nothing above the heaven".

And adh-Dhahabi, in his "Mukhtasar al-Uluww" commented on this saying:

This isnaad is like the sun in its clarity and like a pillar in its affirmation from the head and scholar of the people of Basrah (i.e. Hammaad bin Zayd).

Source: Adh-Dhahabi in "Mukhtasar al-Uluww" (p.132-133)

Comment: And the Mu'tazilah were upon the deen of the Jahmiyyah in negating there is a Lord above the heaven, and we have documented elsewhere that the Mu'tazilah were also heavily involved in debating with the Indian Materialist Philosophers during the time of Haroon ar-Rasheed - see here. And they took up the form of argument of Jahm bin Safwaan against the Indian Materialist Philosophers (of hudooth ul-ajsaam) but they refined it further, by adopting the "atomism" of some of the Greek Philosophers, so they adopted the notions of "al-jawhar al-fard" (the individual particle" and "al-juz alladhee laa yatajazza'" (the indivisible particle) into their creed in order to refine and strengthen that same proof - and then the Ash'ariyyah simply adopted that from Mu'tazilah thereafter. And all of this was the "ilm ul-kalaam" that the Salaf condemned and rebuked.

But this saying of Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani was said before or around 131H which is when Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani died, and this is because the Mu'tazilah adopted the deen of the Jahmiyyah of ta'teel of Allaah's uluww and Allaah's sifaat, on account of that intellectual proof of Hudooth ul-Ajsaam.

And reflect upon what Ayyub as-Sakhtiyaani, that great and pious scholar, said about the Mu'tazilah in his time, and Hammaad bin Zayd who narrated this from Ayyub, and he was no more than 30 years of age, he knew this for a whole fifty years, and he knew what the Jahmites and the Mu'tazilah were intending.

And we see that Hammaad bin Zayd (d. 179H) used to say what he had heard from Ayyub as-Sakhtiyaani (d. 131H) as is reported by Imaam ad-Dhahabee, in Mukhtasar al-uluww (p.146):

Sulayman bin Harb said: I heard Hammad bin Zayd (d. 179H) saying: "They are circulating around [the issue of] of wanting to say that there is no deity above the heaven". He means the Jahmiyyah.

So the Salaf walillaahil-hamd were wise to these Jahmites and Mu'tazilites, and all praise is due to Allaah who has preserved His deen through the speech of the pious Salaf.